The Rest of your Life

Chapter 49

The gates made a loud wheeling noise as they were opened. Rory looked at the man that opened them as Eric limped inside the gates. The man looked weary, Rory smirked slightly, he should be weary.

There was a clang to the left of them. Almost everyone shot to level their guns at the noise, only it was an opossum, and Daryl had already put a bolt through it. Rory picked up the opossum by the tail that Daryl shot, the insiders looked mortified at the girls nonchalance.

"We brought dinner."

•••

After Aaron lead the group inside, the gates were shut behind them and Rory couldn't help but tense a little. She told herself that it was okay, that they could always climb the fences if they needed too.

"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons." Rory glared at the new guy from beside Abraham, the man stepping in front of the small girl. "If you stay, you hand them over."

"We don't know if we want to stay." Rick shot back.

"It's fine, Nicholas." Aaron reassured his ...friend?

"If we were gonna use them, we could have started already." Rick continued, watching as Nicholas grew uncomfortable and wary of the new group of survivors.

"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron reasoned.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham drawled, hand tightening on his gun for a second.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place." Aaron explained before looking to Rick. "Rick, why don't you start?"

"Sasha." Rick spoke, ignoring Aaron for the most part. Rory looked behind her in time to see Sasha shoot a walker in the head through the other side of the gates.

"It's a good thing we're here."

•••

"Hello there." The woman spoke. Rory just looked at her. "I'm Deanna Monroe." The child nodded her head awkwardly as she scratched her arm. The room had a few bookshelves and Rory's eyes roamed in wonder. "What's your name?"

"Ivory." The girl spoke quietly as she walked over to some books. She dragged her hand along the shelf and wrinkled her nose at the dust that collected on her fingers. She didn't want to be here.

"Do you mind if I film this?" Deanna smiled. Rory looked to the woman again. She couldn't help but feel a little self conscious. The woman was freshly cleaned with nice clothes and brushed out hair. Rory inwardly winced as she could feel the dirt that caked her skin, almost on impulse she ran a hand through her hair.

"Hm?" The girl hummed.

"Do you mind if I film our talk?"

"Sure." Rory drawled. "It's not like I can stop you, right?" The girl squinted her eyes at Deanna as she rounded to the back of the sofa, clicking a button on the camera. The girl sighed as she made her way to the window. "Why you filming it anyways?"

"We're about honesty here." Deanna voiced as she sat on the sofa. She frowned as Ivory scoffed. "Take a seat." The woman offered, only to be ignored by the younger as she turned to look at the other books back on the bookshelf. Deanna watched as the girls eyes subtly lit up at the selection. "How long have you been out there?"

"Long enough." Rory replied after a moment.

"Did you know each other before?" Deanna asked cautiously. Rory poked the lamp on the table beside the chair before pulling the switch. She blanked as the lamp brightened as it turned on. Her head immediately snapped to Deanna who was grinning softly at the girl's surprise.